7 Reasons EFT is Fantastic at Helping you Achieve a Better Birth

EFT is an amazing tool to add to your birth kit – I am totally in love with it as it’s quick, easy and effective (for many!).

EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) – sometimes known as Tapping (you might have heard of the Tapping Solution??) is, for me, the ideal tool to support women through pregnancy, labour and birth.

So here’s my 7 reasons why EFT is an amazing birth tool:

Reason 1 – it’s FAST

You can get to the root of the issues with ease as you are identifying when the body reacts to a trigger.

Example – how your body reacts to the *thought*of labour being painful – it might make you feel sick, tight in your tummy/chest, light headed etc. Maybe its keeping you awake at night or we would identify where your beliefs about pain have come from.

Script: “Even though I believe birth will be painful as I’ve watched One Born Every Minute and they are all constantly screaming and when I hear it my tummy tenses, birth might be a different experience for me and I’ve got a plan as to how I will handle pain”

Reason 2 – immediate effects

It has immediate effects – especially for helping to release fears, worries and anxieties but also for building aspirations. We do this by identifying where the intensity is, and then tapping on your body until it’s gone (sometimes we can’t always fully shift it but we can reduce it to much more manageable levels). It doesn’t mask over the negative fears but rather embraces then head on.

Script: “Even though I’m scared that birth is going to be really sore as it was last time, and when I think of it I feel really sick,I’m working on it and it might be different this time as I’ve got much better plans in place and I know much more what to expect this time”

Reason 3 – finds and works through tailenders

We work a lot on tailenders – so what is a tailender?

Here’s a classic birth affirmation – “I birth with ease”…. some tailenders might be…”Well I didn’t last time”, “What on earth does “ease” mean”, “My pal Sarah didn’t so how can I”…. We work through these and help to reduce/eliminate them.

Script: “Even though Sarah had a really difficult birth, that was her birth experience and mine might be different”

Reason 4 – easy to use

Anyone can pick it up quickly and take it home to keep working through their issues – if you spend 5-10 minutes every day doing it – you are likely to have a much better birth as you will be in a mentally strong place to embrace your birth.

Script: “Even though I’m not sure I can make time every day to work through EFT scripts, I am going to make space every evening after dinner as I know how important it is to me”

Reason 5 – when you need to stay calm

It’s a great tool in labour – it can help keep you calm if at any point you are starting to feel panicky.

Script: “Even though I am feeling panicky at the thought of going into the hospital,I am OK and I’m using my plan to stay in control”

Reason 6 – Pain relief

EFT is known to help with pain.

Script: “Even though my back is agony, it feels like it going to break and I’m struggling to cope with the pain, I know this is my body working and my baby is coming”

Reason 7 – integration with other tools

7.It can be used in conjunction with any other therapy birth preparation tool such as positive EFT, visualisations, positive affirmations, hypnobirthing, NLP BUT only once you’ve

(a) identified the fear

(b) worked on reducing or releasing the intensity of the fear

(c) addressed any tailenders

You can then replace your thoughts and beliefs with positive:

Script: “Even though my birth is approaching, I believe I can birth with ease and confidence and I embrace my baby’s arrival”

(We would never start EFT in this place here as we need to work through the above first – but here’s an example…. and we also score this for believability and that might bring up other things where we’d start back at the beginning)

Scripts

A note on the scripts:

Scripts are made up of acknowledging the negative emotion and then there is a balance statement – everyone’s balance statement are different and some people might just say I’m OK. The negative statement is in italics, and the balance statement is in bold in the examples above.

I don’t like using standard scripts because they are not (a) using your own words, thoughts, beliefs, images and (b) not your own balance statements. Whilst you might get some relief, they are unlikely to be effective EFT and that is why getting proper support with a practitioner will be of massive benefit as it will work on your individual needs.

Want to know more?

If you’d like to know more how I use EFT – check out my Birth Coaching programme or Parenting Coaching programme. EFT can be used for a whole variety of issues including stress, anxiety, mild depression, overwhelm, confidence and more. I love using it around fertility, pregnancy, birth and early parenting – check out more on my EFT page. If you’ve had a pretty rubbish birth and need help to overcome that, many people find EFT an ideal tool.

Disclaimer: EFT is known to be an effective tool for many with around 80% of people reporting good results. As birth is unpredictable, it will never stop you from having an intervention where it is needed. However, what it can do is help you to be in a good mental place to be able to plan for all eventualities and special circumstances.